Politics

Rahul Gandhi Questions Legitimacy of 2024 Elections, Blames EC for Declaring 140 Million Voters Illegal

By Aryan Singh

NEW DELHI – Congress leader Rahul Gandhi questioned the legitimacy of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections during a speech at the Bharat Summit in Hyderabad. He accused the Election Commission of declaring 140 million voters who cast ballots in the polls as either “non‑existent voters or non‑voters.” "If the Election Commission declares 140 million voters illegal, how is the election possibly legitimate?" Gandhi asked, noting that the figure represented about 13 % of Indian voters.

Gandhi also traced what he described as the erosion of Indian democracy to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, claiming that the 2014 polls marked an unprecedented shift in the country’s electoral system. He said the 2014 elections introduced a new level of money into politics and overturned a system previously characterized by close contests and coalition governments. He added that the opposition was surprised by the changes and took nearly a decade to understand them.

Turning his criticism toward the alleged nexus between big business and political power, Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of favoring businessman Gautam Adani, saying the distinction between the two had disappeared. He noted that Adani was ranked around 600th in the world before the BJP came to power but later became the world’s second‑richest person, attributing this rise to a fusion between politics and business.

Gandhi further alleged that the BJP’s assets had grown elevenfold in a decade, linking the party’s financial growth to the concentration of political and economic power. He said the BJP had weakened democratic institutions and that Congress had struggled to counter the ruling party because its traditional methods of political communication had stopped working.

He expressed confidence that the opposition would defeat Prime Minister Modi, claiming that pressure on the BJP leadership was becoming increasingly visible and that removing Modi from power was a certainty.

At the summit, Gandhi apologized to foreign delegates who could not attend the event in Hyderabad.